My neighbor has a lot of birdhouses and birth baths in her backyard. They can be pretty noisy, but I find it soothing -- along with my landscaping (lots of palms, birds of paradise, etc) it lets me feel like I'm in a jungle paradise.

But if they were birds like parrots that made louder or less pleasant sounds, I can definitely see being pissed.

I have chickens. No roosters. I have not eaten the roosters but found homes for them. I like roosters but they are noisy as heck and the neighbors are too close. Parrots are worse than roosters (and I have owned parrots in the past and gotten new homes for them for that reason).

<anecdote alert>There is a psychiatrist here named Bob who lives on the 22nd floor of an apartment building who owns a parrot. The parrot occupies a large cage that takes up a whole bedroom. I do not like the bird or the way the psychiatrist talks to it like it is a baby. I never heard the parrot say a single word. For all I know it isn't trained.

Bob invited me over to paint the details into life-size cutouts already painted white that were no longer used for department store window displays following a well publicized Ramses exhibition at the History Museum. The freshly detailed cutouts were to be used for a party.

There we were, Bob and I, out on the balcony painting these cutouts. The parrot was brought out there too. The bird was chained by its foot to the balcony railing making a total nuisance of itself chewing on the paint brushes on a table in front of it, dropping them behind 22 floors to the alley below. Then Bob suddenly announced he had a dentist appointment and so must leave for no more than an hour and then he abruptly left. I held forth outlining the cutouts and filling in the color fields. At one point I drew in the necklace which amounted to horizontal color bands filled with thin perpendicular strokes. Hundreds of one-inch strokes delineating 2-dimensional jewels. My mind was focused intently on the tip of the paint brush as I tediously painted stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke. Right then the parrot broke the silence by squawking in parrot-talk "HELLO BOB !" I pissed myself imagining someone had come flying over the railing 22 floors up like a SWAT team. My impulse was to strangle that goddamn parrot. </anecdote alert>

"Nearly every day, Mr Tarantino and others in his home are subjected to the Macaws' obnoxious pterodactyl-like screams ... "

I have a sister and like many sisters she likes animals ... years ago she spent time working with the Grand Rapids Zoo working with the 'feathered creatures' they had on display (while she endeavored on a Nursing degree) ... she now keeps a few of those, having worked up from cockatiels and small conures; referred to by those who keep them as 'fids' (ostensibly, feathered kids I think it stands for). She has also raised a husband and three real kids, but I digress ...

In her current living collection are two Greys (African Grey parrots) and one Military McCaw ... the LOUDEST, by far, is the McCaw (as pictured in the Quentin story).

I can sympathize.

My sister has an escape though; without the external device that couples magnetically into her cochlear implants (both ears are now implanted) she is completely deaf and can achieve what none of us can: total peace and quiet in the midst of absolute pandemonium.

Fortunately, for her (and family) and the birds, they live for all practical purposes on a deserted country road ... for which the McCaw provides an alert for any car, tractor, hiker or Snowmobile (she is in Wisconsin!) etc coming along that road which he does not recognize!

My favourite parrot joke involves the Spanish crown. The last two hundred years have not been kind to the Bourbons, with their dynasty being overthrown constantly, and sometimes for a republic.

Story says a parrot was taught by its owners to say, "Viva el Rey!" when the King came over for a visit, but had to speedily teach the animal to say, "Viva la Republica" when he was toppled. This happened so many times, that poor Polly got confused, and inappropriately blurted out "La Republica" when it was still a monarchy, thus placing his owners' lives in danger.